#SideLinesWUGC

Ravi Vasudevan looked into how several of the Muslim players at Worlds this year have been able to play during Ramadan.

Ramadan runs from June 5 to July 5 this year. For those who don’t know, Ramadan is a month of fasting to commemorate the first revelation of the Quran to Muhammad. During this month Muslims do not eat food or drink water from dawn to dusk, among other sacrifices. This presents a challenge when halfway through Ramadan is the most competitive Ultimate tournament of the year. It is basically impossible to play sports at this level without water or food, and there are a few players here at WUGC who are handling this situation in different ways. I interviewed a few of them throughout the tournament.

Sean Colfer summarises the semi-finals of the Mixed division ahead of the final this morning.

Today the Australian Mixed team will play the United States Mixed team in the final of the World Ultimate and Guts Championships. For the Americans, this could be the crowning of a remarkable campaign so far – they’ve conceded fewer than four points per game so far, and boast some of the best players in the world on their team. For the Australians, the task is clear; stop one of the most dominant teams in the history of Ultimate on the biggest stage of them all.

Sean Colfer spoke to the people behind the Portuguese team, a country with a strong Ultimate culture but almost no history on grass, to see how their first experience of the World Ultimate and Guts Championships went.

The Portuguese have a strong Ultimate tradition. At the last two World Championships of Beach Ultimate they have reached the semi-finals, and they did the same at the most recent European Beach Championships. However, despite this pedigree, the trip to London is the first time they have ever played a World Ultimate and Guts Championships – or indeed any kind of Worlds on grass.

Sean Colfer met up with five players from the Great Britain Masters Men’s team who have been playing together for over 10 years to discuss their memories of successes together and their aims for the future.

The Great Britain Masters Men’s team is here to win. They are clear that their expectation is to come here and win the gold medal, not to simply make up numbers and try to compete against the North Americans.

Aidan Kelly took in a day of real mixed emotions for the Ireland Men’s team – one that began on a real high but, despite heroic performances, couldn’t quite finish that way.

It was a day of incredibly mixed emotions for Ireland’s Men’s team on Wednesday as they fought two competitive, entertaining battles against France and Australia here at the World Ultimate and Guts Championships.

Ravi Vasudevan continues his Men’s coverage by looking at what happened on a rainy day in London.

Only four teams remain in the Men’s division of WUGC after four games of intense Ultimate today in London.

USA vs Colombia: 15-2

This quarter-final was a blowout. The Colombians just didn’t have the athleticism or skills to keep up with the favourite in this tournament. Sadly the only real event of note in this game was a Colombian player leaving the field with a broken leg on some unfortunate contact during the game. USA make their way into semi-finals tomorrow.

Victoria Higgins caught up with the captains of the first Belgian Women’s team to see how they made their journey to Worlds happen, despite a fledgling Women’s scene in a country dominated by Open.

Belgium has brought its first ever Women’s team to the World Ultimate and Guts Championships this year and, of the many teams for whom the same title can be claimed, they have outperformed them all. They went 3 – 3 in pool play after pulling off a major upset against Sweden, who went on to pre-quarters and narrowly lost to Switzerland for the opportunity to er, watch the United States at work in quarters. I spoke with their captains, Jolien de Ruytter (#16) and Eva Maxson (#25), on Monday to find out how what precipitated the formation of Belgium’s first Worlds team and what goals they had set for themselves.